This petition is aimed at the people of Sega, in the hopes that future titles in the Sonic the Hedgehog series will have more playable characters. Making Sonic the only playable character was a poor decision. It makes the games less interesting, and shorter. Characters like Tails, Amy Rose, Knuckles the Echidna, Shadow the Hedgehog, Cream the Rabbit, and Rouge the Bat are being repeatedly shifted to the sidelines because people disliked playing as anyone other than Sonic. But this was a bad move on the designers' part. From a gameplay point of view, it's understandable, seeing as how most people would rather keep the overall speed of a Sonic game to a high level. However, the Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush series were able to prove that multiple playable characters can work as long as they have similar speed and the same gameplay. By cutting down on "gimmick" gameplay, and having each character control like Sonic, but with differing moves to allow for different paths through a level, different characters can work. It worked with Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and that is widely considered to be one of the best games in the entire franchise. From a story standpoint, this would be extremely beneficial. It would allow for a greater amount of character interaction and development. One reason the Sonic Adventure series was so popular was the story that came from multiple playable characters. It worked there, and it can work again. Many people consider Sonic friends to be bland and uninteresting. But by giving them a larger role in a story, it gives the developers the opportunity to develop them more and make them more three dimensional. For example, How does Knuckles feel about being the last of his kind? Does Amy ever feel bad about Sonic running from her? What is the real reason for Tails having two tails? These subjects alone would make a story more interesting. This petition was created with my firm belief that relying on Sonic alone over and over again will not work for the long term future. The only way for the series to truly progress, both from a gameplay and story standpoint, is to bring back Sonic's friends as playable characters. I sign this petition in the hopes that Sega will consider this point of view, and hopefully incorporate it into future titles in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.